Translation into and out of local languages
Moving documents between Arabic, Kurdish and English: where machine translation is good enough, and where it is not.
Outcome
A working translation that preserves meaning, names, numbers, dates, quotations, and uncertainty, with a fluent person responsible for the final text.
Data gate
- Public: a published report, public statement, or website can use a checked cloud route.
- Internal: remove partner names, draft strategy, and identifying detail before choosing an approved organisation account or local route.
- Identifiable: testimony, legal files, source messages, and personal records stay in a verified local workflow, or are translated by a person.
Language quality depends on the model, language pair, dialect, register, and document. Do not turn a missing benchmark into a claim that a language is either safe or unusable.
Use AI when
- The source is clear and a fluent reviewer is available.
- You need a first draft, terminology options, or a version for comparison.
- The consequences of an error are understood and recoverable.
Do not use AI when
- Nobody on the team can review both source and target language.
- The text is legally controlling, safety-critical, or identifiable and no approved route exists.
- You need the tool to decide what an ambiguous sentence means.
Workflow
- Prepare: identify audience, register, language pair, protected terms, and allowed data class.
- Process: translate short sections and instruct the tool not to alter names, numbers, dates, or quotation boundaries.
- Verify: compare each protected term and a sample from every section against the source.
- Store or publish: save the source, translated draft, reviewer name, and review date together.
Human verification checklist
- Names, numbers, currencies, dates, negations, and quotations match.
- Legal and technical terms are consistent across the document.
- A fluent reviewer confirms meaning, tone, and local usage.
- No identifying detail entered a route that was approved only for public material.
If it fails
Shorten the section, provide a terminology list, and try once more. If meaning is still unstable, stop and use a human translation. Smooth wording is not evidence of accuracy.
Start next
Use the recipes below for a complete workflow. For public, low-risk drafts, a general assistant such as ChatGPTChatGPTNever for sensitive materialHas a free version: A free plan exists with lower feature and usage limits than paid plans.View tool may help. Choose a local or human route for identifiable text.
Prompts for this task
Redact first
Translate a document and keep the terms consistent
20 minutes · Gives you short sections
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. You are translating for a civil society organisation. Translate the text below from [SOURCE LANGUAGE] into [TARGET LANGUAGE]. Rules: 1. Translate the meaning, not word by word. Keep the register formal and plain. 2. Add nothing, remove nothing, soften nothing. If the source is vague, stay vague. 3. Copy every name, number, date and quotation exactly as it appears in the source. Keep each number in the digit form the source uses, and say so where the source mixes digits: ١٢٣ alongside 123. 4. The first time a legal or technical term appears, put the original word in brackets after your translation. 5. Mark anything you are unsure about with [CHECK] inside the translation. Give me, in this order: A. The translation. B. A table with two columns: the source term, and the wording you chose for it. C. Every [CHECK] you marked, with one line each saying why. If you are reading on a phone, replace the table with one block per row: a heading line, then one short labelled line per column. Text to translate: [PASTE THE TEXT]
Public material only
Translate a donor call without shifting a requirement
15 minutes · Gives you short sections · Works on a phone
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. Below is a published call for proposals. Translate it into the language named above. Colleagues will decide what to apply for from your translation, so a requirement that shifts meaning is a lost application. Rules: 1. Translate the meaning in plain formal wording. Do not summarise, do not shorten, do not explain. 2. Copy every figure, date, time, time zone, percentage and currency exactly as written. Where the source mixes digits (١٢٣ alongside 123), keep each one in the form it appears. 3. Never make a requirement softer or firmer. "Must" stays "must", "may" stays "may", "encouraged" stays "encouraged". 4. The first time a requirement word appears (eligible, mandatory, co-financing, annex, deadline, audit, ceiling), put the English word in brackets after your wording. 5. Where the English can be read two ways, translate the more literal reading and mark it [CHECK]. Give me, in this order: A. The translation. B. Every [CHECK], one line each, saying what the two readings are. C. Every figure, date and deadline, one line each: the source wording first, then your translation of it, so I can compare them one by one. D. Every requirement word you chose a wording for, with the English in brackets. The call: [PASTE THE PUBLISHED CALL]
Redact first
Translate your own report into English without upgrading it
20 minutes · Gives you short sections · Works on a phone
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. Below is one section of our own report, with identifying details already removed. Translate it into English for a donor. Carry the meaning across at exactly the strength the source gives it, never stronger. Rules: 1. Keep every claim at source strength. "We observed" must not become "we established". "Some participants said" must not become "participants said". Every hedge in the source stays a hedge in the English. 2. Add nothing. If the source does not say who, how many, where or when, do not supply it. 3. Copy every figure and date exactly, and keep mixed digits (١٢٣ alongside 123) in the form each one appears. 4. Where the source is unclear, translate it literally and mark it [CHECK]. Do not make it read well. 5. Section A is the English translation. Write sections B, C and D in the language named above. Give me, in this order: A. The translation. B. Every sentence where your English is stronger, broader or more certain than the source: the source wording on one line, your wording on the next, then one line saying what changed. Write "none" only if there are none. C. Every [CHECK], one line each, saying what is unclear in the source. D. Every place where you used a term the source did not use, with the source word beside it. The report section: [PASTE THE SECTION, WITH NAMES AND IDENTIFYING DETAILS ALREADY REMOVED]
Redact first
Check a Sorani translation line by line against the Arabic
15 minutes · Gives you a table
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. Below is an Arabic text, then a Kurdish Sorani translation of it. Compare the two. You are checking a translation, not producing one. Rules: 1. Work line by line, in the order of the Arabic. 2. Copy the Arabic line and the Sorani line as they are. Write the verdict and the note in the language named above. 3. Give each line one verdict only: same meaning, weaker, stronger, missing, added. 4. Where the verdict is not "same meaning", add one plain sentence saying what the difference is. No grammar terms. 5. Treat every figure, date and name as a line of its own. Mixed digits (١٢٣ alongside 123) count as a difference and must be reported. 6. Never offer a corrected wording, not once. Reporting the difference is the whole job. Give me, in this order: A. A table, one row per line of the Arabic: the Arabic line, the Sorani line, the verdict, the note. B. How many lines got each verdict. C. The lines a fluent Sorani speaker should look at first, most serious first. D. Last of all, this sentence: machine output in Kurdish Sorani needs a fluent speaker to read it before it is used anywhere. If you are reading on a phone, replace the table with one block per row: a heading line, then one short labelled line per column. The Arabic: [PASTE THE ARABIC] The Sorani translation: [PASTE THE SORANI TRANSLATION]
Public material only
Rewrite an official paragraph in plain language
10 minutes · Gives you a message to send · Works on a phone
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. Below is one paragraph of published official text: a regulation, a form instruction or a donor condition. Rewrite it in plain words in the language named above, as a message I can send to a community member as it stands. Rules: 1. Short sentences, everyday words. Write so that a fourteen year old can read it once and know what to do. 2. Keep every number, date, deadline, amount, office name and place name exactly as written, including mixed digits (١٢٣ alongside 123). 3. Add nothing. No advice, no reassurance, no step and no office that is not in the paragraph. If the paragraph does not say who to contact or what happens next, write that it does not say. 4. Do not soften an obligation. If something is required, the message says it is required, and if there is a consequence for missing it, the message says that too. 5. Keep any word that has a legal effect and cannot be swapped for an everyday word. Then explain it once, in one line. Give me, in this order: A. The message, ready to send, at most eight short sentences. B. What the reader must do, and by when, one line each. C. Every word you had to keep technical, with a one line explanation of each. D. Anything in the paragraph you could not make plain without changing its meaning. The paragraph: [PASTE THE PUBLISHED PARAGRAPH]
Tools that help with this
- Controlled route for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks offlineWorks in Iraq
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Only approved or redacted sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks offlineWorks in Iraq, but not fully
- Only approved or redacted sensitive materialHas a free versionWe do not know whether it works in Iraq
Step-by-step guides for this
- Only approved or redacted sensitive material
- Controlled route for sensitive material